Democracy Never Lasts Long

But is it necessarily in the nature of democracies to run down the nation’s finances… to lunch free of charge?

Perhaps it is not democracy as such to blame… but the character of a particular people.

Ancient Athens — by all rights a democracy — amassed a vast public treasury in its Golden Age.

That treasury remained unmolested until wartime, even though it was there for the asking. The citizens of Athens were free to vote themselves the manna.

But they did not.

Author Freeman Tilden, from his neglected 1935 masterwork A World in Debt:

At one time the Athenians had in their citadel more than 10,000 talents of silver [roughly $165 million in 2016 dollars]; and what is more significant, they did not tap the resources until forced by the necessity of war.

Tilden cited 18th-century British philosopher David Hume, on the Athenian character:

What an ambitious and high-spirited people was this, to collect and keep in their treasury a sum which it was every day in the power of the citizens, by a single vote, to distribute among themselves!

Nor did Athens take to the swindle when it was in a bad way — no clipping of coins, no debasing the currency.

Tilden:

The most brilliant democrats that ever lived, the Athenians, made tragic mistakes of policy… But with all their blunders, the Athenians never, as free men, indulged in the final madness of debasing their currency: They never became swindlers… Athens rose in trade by means of establishing good credit and by safeguarding the honor of her coin. In the most terrible years of her history, when the treasury was empty… she was indeed obliged to strike emergency coins of gold and bronze, but never consented to debase her coinage.

Is America More Like the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire?

Safeguarding the honor of its coin?

At this point we might remind you…

The United States dollar has lost 95% of its value since the Federal Reserve went on duty in 1913.

But out of respect for the nation’s monetary authority and the high dignity of its office… we shall refrain.

Were the ancients hammered from nobler metal than us moderns? Had they greater virtue?

More than Athens, the Founders set the American form of government to the Roman model.

But was not Rome a bedlam of vice and debauchery?

Did not Nero fiddle while Rome burned?

Did not Caligula famously name his horse a consul?

Yes, but the Founders looked to the early Roman Republic for its example — before Caesar went across the Rubicon — before Nero fiddled.

Virtue, public service were the pole stars of the early Roman Republic.

Consider the Battle of Cannae in 216 B.C.

Rome lost 50,000 men to Hannibal’s berserkers in one single day (America lost a comparable number in over a decade of Vietnam).

Was it the dregs of Rome that went to their graves that day?

No. The Roman Senate lost almost one-third of its members in the Battle of Cannae.

“This suggests,” notes historian Peter Turchin, “that the senatorial aristocracy was more likely to be killed in wars than the average citizen.”

If a nation gets the government it deserves… the citizens of the early Roman Republic must have been made of pretty good stuff.

Imagine — for one passing moment if you can — a United States senator on the front lines of battle.

Then return to your senses.

Meantime, Turchin informs us that the wealth of Rome’s top 1% was perhaps 10–20 times a commoner’s at the height of the Roman Republic.

By the time of Rome’s terminal imperial decline… that figure may have risen to 10,000 times.

America’s numbers aren’t quite so out of joint — yet.

But does America’s domestic condition today more resemble the Roman Republic… or the Roman Empire?

Benjamin Franklin was present when the Constitutional Convention concluded in September 1787.

Upon his departure from the old Pennsylvania State House, Ben Franklin was supposedly accosted by a grand Philadelphia belle.

Legend claims she asked old Ben whether the assembled had bequeathed the people a monarchy — or a republic.

About Brian Maher:

Brian Maher is the Daily Reckoning’s Managing Editor. Before signing on to Agora Financial, he was an independent researcher and writer who covered economics, politics and international affairs. His work has appeared in the Asia Times and other news outlets around the world. He holds a Master’s degree in Defense & Strategic Studies.